Why the Five-Paragraph Theme is the Foundation of All Writing

How do you make your writing compelling?

Many, many years ago, a former high school classmate and I were discussing what we learned during those four years together. He asked me, “Has the five-paragraph theme helped you at all during your career?”

Remember the five-paragraph theme? You were taught it at some point during high school English depending on your track. The five-paragraph theme stated an argument in the opening paragraph, used three paragraphs to support it, and then had a closing paragraph. I hadn’t really given it that much thought since I had graduated from high school and then college, so I didn’t have the best answer at the time. However, I can say years later that learning the five-paragraph model laid the foundation for all of my future writing.

Take op-eds and newspaper editorials, for instance. They are simply iterations of the five-paragraph theme, but with a call to action and more flexibility in structure. The argument is laid out in the first one-to-two paragraphs and is followed by several paragraphs supporting it before generally closing with a call-to-action in the final paragraph. The same concept of an opener, additional, and closer applies to news releases and longer form pieces. One could even argue that books, plays, and screenplays are just much longer versions of the five-paragraph theme.

You might be asking “What about social media?” Well, if a Facebook post or Tweet doesn’t incorporate the entire approach of the five-paragraph theme, they use pieces of it. For example, a zinger of a Tweet is simply a variation of an introduction paragraph without the supporting information. In addition, many threads that you see on X or longer posts on LinkedIn or Facebook have an intro, supporting points, and a closing thought.

The main reason one might not look back and see the value in five-paragraph themes is because they are written by high school students who would rather be doing something else so most of them aren’t very good. But even if our five-paragraph themes were unmemorable or downright dreadful, they showed us how to organize our thoughts on paper. Now that we have that roadmap, it is up to us to make that writing compelling.

From essays to emails to executive summaries—it all starts with this one structure. Don’t miss the full insight. Subscribe to get the complete blog.